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LITERATURA, CRÍTICA, LIBERTAD
Estudios en homenaje a
Juan Bravo Castillo
Coordinadores:
Hans Christian Hagedorn
Silvia Molina Plaza
Margarita Rigal AragónLITERATURA, CRÍTICA, LIBERTAD Estudios en homenaje a Juan Bravo Castillo
LITERATURA, CRÍTICA,
LIBERTAD
Estudios en homenaje a
Juan Bravo Castillo
Hans Christian Hagedorn
Silvia Molina Plaza
Margarita Rigal Aragón
(coords.)
Ediciones de la Universidad
de Castilla-La Mancha
Cuenca, 2020LITERATURA, CRÍTICA, LIBERTAD
ESTUDIOS EN HOMENAJE A JUAN BRAVO CASTILLO
Margarita Alfaro Amieiro
Antonio Ballesteros González
Antonio Barnés Vázquez
Jesús María Barrajón
Esther Bautista Naranjo
Juan Antonio Belmonte Marín
Claude Benoit Morinière
Lourdes Carriedo López
Asunción Castro Díez
José Manuel Correoso Rodenas
Claude Duée
José María Fernández Cardo
Ángel Galdón Rodríguez
Tagirem Gallego García
Antonio García Martínez
Pedro Jesús Garrido Picazo
Marta Giné Janer
Beatriz González Moreno y Fernando González Moreno
Fátima Gutiérrez
Hans Christian Hagedorn
Juan Herrero Cecilia
Clara Janés
Alejandro Jaquero EsparciaMaría Isabel Jiménez González
Isabel López Cirugeda
Celia López González y Silvia Molina Plaza
José Manuel Losada
Juan Agustín Mancebo Roca
Elena E. Marcello
Ricardo Marín Ruiz
Rocío Martínez Prieto
Ángel Mateos-Aparicio Martín-Albo
José Antonio Millán Alba
Montserrat Morales Peco
Jean Muñoz
María Dolores Picazo
María Teresa Pisa Cañete
Francisco Javier del Prado Biezma
Ignacio Ramos Gay
Àngels Santa
Santos Sanz Villanueva
Alfredo Segura Tornero
Lydia Vázquez
Hans Christian Hagedorn, Silvia Molina Plaza, Margarita Rigal Aragón
(coords.)Juan Bravo Castillo
LITERATURA, crítica, libertad. Estudios en homenaje a Juan Bravo Castillo / Marga-
rita Alfaro Amieiro… [et al.] ; coordinadores, Hans Christian Hagedorn, Silvia Molina
Plaza, Margarita Rigal Aragón .– Cuenca : Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La
Mancha, 2020
640 p. ; 24 cm.– (Homenajes ; 12)
ISBN 978-84-9044-403-0
1. Literatura - Historia y crítica I. Alfaro Ameiro, Margarita. II. Hagedorn, Hans
Christian, coord. III. Molina Plaza, Silvia, coord. IV. Rigal Aragón, Margarita., coord.
V. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, ed. VI. Título VII. Serie
89 (09)
DS
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Edita: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha.
Colección HOMENAJES n.º 12.
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C.I.D.I. (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha).
Esta editorial es miembro de la UNE, lo que garantiza la difusión
y comercialización de sus publicaciones a nivel nacional e internacional.
I.S.B.N.: 978-84-9044-403-0 (Edición impresa)
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D.O.I.: http://doi.org/10.18239/homenajes_2020.12.00
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en este enlace: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.esÍNDICE
Palabras para Juan Bravo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Clara Janés
Prólogo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Hans Christian Hagedorn, Silvia Molina Plaza y Margarita Rigal
Aragón
Tabula gratulatoria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
I. Filología Francesa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fatima Mernissi : l’art de raconter et la conquête du bonheur au féminin. . . . 41
Margarita Alfaro Amieiro
Marguerite Yourcenar et l’Argentine. Ponts et passerelles littéraires. . . . . . . . 53
Claude Benoit Morinière
Alain-Fournier y los restos del naufragio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Lourdes Carriedo López
Racine, María Teresa de Austria y La Ninfa del Sena (opera prima). . . . . . . . 77
José María Fernández Cardo
La femme indienne au regard de Pierre Loti : des personnages « décor » à la
bayadère Balamoni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Tagirem Gallego García
Màrius Torres, traducteur de poésie française . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Marta Giné Janer
11Índice
Le décor mythique d’un « vent Paraclet » : de la Prusse-Orientale à l’île du
Pacifique dans l’imaginaire tourniérien. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Fátima Gutiérrez
Albert Camus, un escritor humanista de proyección universal: su relación con
España y con la cultura española. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Juan Herrero Cecilia
Algunas reflexiones sobre el porqué de la originalidad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
José Antonio Millán Alba
Napoleón, leyenda negra y dorada en la literatura francesa del Romanticismo. 151
Montserrat Morales Peco
Mme de Staël, un primer hito europeísta en la historia moderna del diálogo
intercultural. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
María Dolores Picazo
Le théâtre de Dulcinée Langfelder : intime, universel et féminin . . . . . . . . . . 187
María Teresa Pisa Cañete
Vuelta a Tipasa (volver al naturalismo es, siempre, volver al mundo
grecolatino) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Javier del Prado Biezma
À la recherche de l’idéal chez George Sand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Àngels Santa
Maupassant en Une femme coquette como esencia del cine de Godard. . . . . . 231
Alfredo Segura Tornero
La comédie mélancolique chez Marivaux : La double inconstance, La fausse
suivante, La Dispute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Lydia Vázquez
II. Filología Hispánica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
La imagen del río y su raíz simbolista. Algunos casos de su empleo en la poe-
sía española desde la generación del 50 hasta los inicios del siglo xxi. . . . 255
Jesús María Barrajón
Viaje con Cervantes (I): la ruta de Don Quijote en el siglo xxi . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Esther Bautista Naranjo
Lecturas posmodernas de la materia legendaria y mítica en la narrativa de
Luis Mateo Díez y José María Merino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Asunción Castro Díez
Antonio Muñoz Molina: semblanza de un melómano. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Antonio García Martínez
12Índice
Traduciendo y adaptando al itálico modo el humorismo español: Carlo
Celano frente a Tirso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Elena E. Marcello
Stultorum infinitus est numerus: el humanismo filológico en la Edad Moderna
española a través de El Quijote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Rocío Martínez Prieto
Manuel Longares: primera impresión. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Santos Sanz Villanueva
III. Filología Inglesa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
La influencia de Edgar Allan Poe en Japón: Edogawa Rampo. . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Antonio Ballesteros González
William Gilmore Simms y Flannery O’Connor: rescatando los fantasmas del
Sur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
José Manuel Correoso Rodenas
La construcción de la verdad en Nineteen Eighty-Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Ángel Galdón Rodríguez
The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
María Isabel Jiménez González
Análisis formal de los relatos de Dorothy Parker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Isabel López Cirugeda
La recepción de Strangers on a Train de Patricia Highsmith en España. . . . . 429
Celia López González y Silvia Molina Plaza
Ciudad y literatura: Nueva York como paradigma en la literatura
norteamericana. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Ricardo Marín Ruiz
Posthumanidad y ciencia-ficción: El mito de la inmortalidad en la era digital. 469
Ángel Mateos-Aparicio Martín-Albo
La marioneta ecuestre en el teatro actual: Autenticidad y etología dramática
en War Horse (2007). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Ignacio Ramos Gay
IV. Otras perspectivas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Metáforas contemporáneas de Dios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Antonio Barnés Vázquez
Salambó y los inicios de los Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Juan Antonio Belmonte Marín
13Índice Un essaim d’abeilles irritées : Une approche psychanalytique de la « Rima LXIII (68) » de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer et une proposition de traduction française . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 Claude Duée Barcarola. Revista de creación literaria: 40 años de entrega a la difusión de la cultura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 Pedro Jesús Garrido Picazo El viaje pintoresco: España a través de Charles Davillier y Gustave Doré . . . 553 Beatriz González Moreno y Fernando González Moreno Los molinos de viento del Quijote en el jazz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 Hans Christian Hagedorn El camino hacia la dignificación de la pintura en el Trecento italiano: de Dante a Cennini. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 Alejandro Jaquero Esparcia Révolution de l’image à l’avènement de la Modernité. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603 José Manuel Losada Graham Greene crítico cinematográfico. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 Juan Agustín Mancebo Roca Le « caciquisme », héritage d’Amérique Latine, comme forme de gouvernance traditionelle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625 Jean Muñoz 14
THE USE OF SPACE IN EDGAR ALLAN POE’S
SCIENCE FICTION
MARÍA ISABEL JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
http://doi.org/10.18239/homenajes_2020.13.27
1. INTRODUCTION
Space has long been regarded at two different levels: microcosmic and macro-
cosmic, as the gaps among things that keep them apart and as the larger container
into which all things are inserted, respectively. Since antiquity, Western thinking
has been determined by this way of understanding space, making it neutral, homo-
genous, insignificant and meaningless, only the things which occupy space being of
significance to philosophy or the sciences. However, in the twentieth century, space
began to be seen as less homogenous or neutral (West-Pavlov 2009: 16).
Likewise, spatial theorization in the humanities and the social sciences has
moved from being cutting edge and controversial to the mainstream of critical
theory, becoming an essential tool for any scholar or academic. This «spatial turn»
in the human sciences has been widely explored by great thinkers, such as Henri
Lefebvre, Julia Kristeva, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze or Félix Guattari, who
have focused on theories of space in society and spatial practices (Blank and Rosen-
Zvi 2010: 1). These important theorists «have discovered space and used it as a cri-
tical and analytical tool during the second half of the twentieth century» (Blank and
Rosen-Zvi 2010: 1). Thus, their considerable body of work will contribute to get
to understand better what Edgar A. Poe wanted to convey in his works of fiction.
The contributions of Poe to literature are without any doubt admirable, and it is
because of them that he has been acclaimed worldwide as the father of detective
399María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
fiction (Rigal Aragón 2010: 47), of the literature of psychological horror and one
of the earliest authors of science fiction literature.
The early examples of this last genre were very different from the science fiction
of today. In fact, Edgar Allan Poe was a noteworthy author of proto-science fic-
tion, as Patrick Parrinder declares, benefitting as much as possible from his narrow
scientific background in order to modify it in his fictions:
Most early or «proto» science fiction was the product of writers who stood
at some distance from the science of their time and set out to mock, satirise,
discredit, or at best to play with it. I am thinking here of Lucian, Godwin,
Cyrano de Bergerac, Swift, Voltaire, Mary Shelley, and Poe. Poe comes the
nearest to generic science fiction, though his imitations of scientific discourse
can never be taken at face value (Parrinder 2000: 24).
Thus, different spaces are discovered and explored by the characters that Edgar
A. Poe introduced in his proto-science fiction tales. This article will mainly focus
on three different spaces: outer space, sea space, and inner space, and it will delve
into the fears and motivations that led Poe to place his stories in these thought-
provoking spatial contexts.
2. OUTER SPACE
Outer space is one of the first spaces of Edgar Allan Poe’s science fiction that
will be analysed in this paper, focusing our attention on six different stories. How
ever, readers can distinguish at least one important difference between them: the
setting within this outer space. Poe decided to place three of these tales in the sky
(«The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall», «The Balloon-Hoax» and
«Mellonta Tauta»), including outrageous mechanisms of displacement, while there
are other three stories which took place in Heaven («The Conversation of Eiros and
Charmion», «The Colloquy of Monos and Una» and «The Power of Words»), due
to different motivations and reasons that will be studied below.
2.1. Crossing the Sky
Since the dawn of mankind, human beings have dreamed of being able to fly,
and there have been several attempts throughout history to achieve this incredible
goal. Classical mythology and numerous old religions considered this possibility,
and also included flying and winged beings among their teachings and principles.
The origins of aeronautics can be traced to the second or third century AD in China
or, even before, when trying to explain the mystery of the Nazca Lines, in Peru
400The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction
(Baker 2008: 140). Nevertheless, modern aviation is thought to have been born in
the eighteenth century, and, two centuries after, man set foot on the moon.
Taking the dream of flight into account and bearing in mind the writer’s era1, it
is not surprising that outer space was one of Poe’s favourite settings, about which
he wrote three different, but similar, stories. «The Unparalleled Adventure of One
Hans Pfaall» is one of the first tales where Edgar A. Poe relates a trip to the moon,
introducing the topic of outer space. It is, at the same time and for obvious reasons,
one of his first popular hoaxes and also a key story within his production of science
fiction.
This story was published in June 1835 in the Southern Literary Messenger in
Richmond (Virginia) as «Hans Phaall, a Tale» (Quinn 1998: 208), widely recogni-
zed later as «The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall». The narrator descri-
bes a trip to the moon and, in spite of his burlesque tone, he gives accurate details
about the technique used to make this journey (Jiménez González 2010: 112). This
precise knowledge was revealed by Edgar Allan Poe himself in one of the visits that
he paid to John H. B. Latrobe, a prominent nineteenth-century Baltimore citizen:
I was seated at my desk on the Monday following the publication of the
tale, when a gentleman entered and introduced himself as the writer […] I
asked him whether he was then occupied with any literary labor. He replied
that he was then engaged on a voyage to the moon, and at once went into
a somewhat learned disquisition upon the laws of gravity, the height of the
earth’s atmosphere, and capacities of balloons, warming in his speech as he
proceeded. Presently, speaking in the first person, he began the voyage, after
describing the preliminary arrangements, as you will find them set forth in
one of his tales, called «The Adventures of Hans Phaall», and leaving the
earth, and becoming more and more animated, he described his sensation as
he ascended higher and higher, until, at last, he reached the point in space
where the moon’s attraction overcame that of the earth, when there was a
sudden bouleversement of the car and great confusion among its tenants
(Beaver 1976: 340).
Furthermore, Poe was keen on astronomy and outer space in his early youth.
When John Allan, his stepfather, bought a house in 1825, Poe installed a telescope
on the second floor in order to study the stars and explore the mysteries of our
natural satellite: the moon (Beaver 1976: 340).
1 Edgar Allan Poe belonged to the nineteenth century, when outer space had not yet been
explored, so this type of literature was totally new, risky and unknown.
401María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
Concerning the story itself, this voyage is not only original and innovative for
its time but it is also a brilliant way to introduce some key factors in his narrations
about outer space: a device of displacement, an astronaut and an extra-terrestrial
character. As described by the writer, this creature of outer space is very singular,
completely different from an average and normal human citizen:
This was in truth a very singular somebody. He could not have been more
than two feet in height [...] His feet, of course, could not be seen at all. His
hands were enormously large. His hair was gray, and collected into a queue
behind. His nose was prodigiously long, crooked and inflammatory; his
eyes full, brilliant, and acute; his chin and cheeks, although wrinkled with
age, were broad, puffy, and double; but of ears of any kind there was not a
semblance to be discovered upon any portion of his head (Poe 1994: 389).
It is also interesting to point out the veracity that Poe wanted to convey, as Reiss
states:
In this account Poe wrote with great care, and his descriptions show that he
evidently had read considerably on such subjects as gravitation, astronomy,
and the topography of the moon, besides having acquainted himself with the
instruments used by aeronauts, with the construction of balloons, and with
the effects of atmospheric pressures. This show of learning was certainly
designed to lend credibility to a chronicle of an unusual journey (Reiss 1957:
306-307).
Apart from outer space, other unknown spaces are described through the intro-
duction of pseudoscientific ideas, such as the idea that the Earth was hollow and
the poles were connected. This is something that the main character explains when
approaching to the North Pole in his ascent: «The convexity of the ocean had
become so evident, that the entire mass of the distant water seemed to be tumbling
headlong over the abyss of the horizon, and I found myself listening on tiptoe for
the echoes of the mighty cataract» (Poe 1994: 417). In the same way, Pfaall declares
that he catches a glimpse of the Rupes Nigra, an invented magnetic island believed
to be located at the North Pole: «At the Pole itself, in a circular centre, sharply defi-
ned, whose apparent diameter subtended at the balloon an angle of about sixty-five
seconds, and whose dusky hue, varying in intensity, was at all times darker than any
other spot upon the visible hemisphere, and occasionally deepened into the most
absolute blackness» (Poe 1994: 418). Also Pfaall mentions the concavity of the
Earth in another passage: «What mainly astonished me, in the appearance of things
402The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction
below, was the seeming concavity of the surface of the globe. I had, thoughtlessly
enough, expected to see its real convexity become evident as I ascended; but a very
little reflection sufficed to explain the discrepancy» (Poe 1994: 408).
In continuing the theme of outer space, we can also highlight «The Balloon-
Hoax» (1844) along with «Mellonta Tauta» (1849), where Edgar A. Poe tried to
imagine and describe unknown spaces as perfectly well known. «The Balloon-
Hoax» is one of the writer’s most surprising stories since it was published, with
a different title (for obvious reasons), in the New York Sun2 as a real account of a
transatlantic voyage on board a balloon in only three days, coming up with the idea
of crossing international airspace:
BY EXPRESS.
ASTOUNDING INTELLIGENCE BY PRI
VATE EXPRESS FROM CHARLESTON
VIA NORFOLK! – THE ATLANTIC
OCEAN CROSSED IN THREE DAYS!!
–ARRIVAL AT SULLIVAN’S ISLAND
OF A STEERING BALLOON INVENTED
BY MR. MONCK MASON!! (Poe 2000: vol. II, 1066).
Once again there is a fine line between fact and fiction in this story, which is
divided into two parts, as Castillo Martín explains. The first one describes to the
reader the details of the modes of transportation and the state of aviation at that
particular moment, while the second part is devoted to the collection of data during
the trip (Castillo Martín 2011: 67).
For the last story within this set, «Mellonta Tauta» (1849), Edgar Allan Poe
chooses a future time and space: the society of the year 2848. The title itself warns
the reader that the tale is futuristic, since the expression «Mellonta Tauta» comes
from the Greek mellontatauta, meaning «these things are in the future», as P.
Parrinder explains (Parrinder 2000: 24).
«Mellonta Tauta» was published for the first time in Godey’s Lady’s Book,
exactly eight months before Poe’s death and, like the previous stories, this one also
takes place in outer space. The narrator uses her experience across the Atlantic
Ocean aboard a balloon to complain about her society, quoting Poe’s reasoning,
who takes advantage of it in an effort to express «his distrust of the democratic
2 The Sun was the first penny newspaper published in New York and it was specialized in
scoops and the sensational treatment of news, what explains the circumstances around the launch of
the story (Beaver 1976: 368-369).
403María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
mob, underscore man’s inability to learn from the lessons of history, and deplore
the conformity of his fellow citizens» (Galloway 1983: 18).
In spite of the fact that the writer describes future American society, this story
is neither a utopia nor dystopia, since all the scientific, social, technological and
historic changes and advances seem to be different (not better or worse). Therefore,
for Poe, it is simply a faithful drawing of American reality, particularly its social
and political organization.
Readers find, from the very first paragraph, a narrator who tries to deceive them
by defining the story as an «odd-looking MS. Found, about a year ago, tightly cor-
ked up in a jug floating in the Mare Tenebrarum» (Poe 2000: vol. II, 1291). As the
author, who receives the nickname of Pundita3, says, this document is a punishment
for one of her friends, who will have to read it «on account of my ennui [boredom]
and your sins» (Poe 2000: vol. II, 1292).
2.2. Philosophical Essays in Heaven
Poe’s most important apocalyptic tales are set in outer space as well: «The
Conversation of Eiros and Charmion» (1839), «The Colloquy of Monos and Una»
(1841) and «The Power of Words» (1845). These three short stories, mostly con-
sidered philosophical essays, take place in a peculiar setting, which is Heaven, or
Aidenn in the case of «The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion» and «The Power
of Words», and the characters are described as souls, spirits or angels. Space and
spatial forms play an important role in these stories, especially in «The Power of
Words», since they provide a perfect opportunity for developing both the use of the
concept of power/knowledge and the importance of the spatial dimension when it
comes to understanding social relations (Zielenic 2007: 125).
«The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion» is Poe’s first apocalyptic tale, and it
is based on new scientific advances. It is commonly regarded as another example
of science fiction because it involves the destruction of the world, a theme that
will be examined by means of a dialogue between two dead people who have been
renamed as Eiros and Charmion in Heaven – Aidenn:
EIROS. Why do you call me Eiros?
CHARMION. So henceforth will you always be called. You must forget, too,
my earthly name, and speak to me as Charmion.
EIROS. This is indeed no dream!
3 It is important to highlight that the name of the bluestocking protagonist, Pundita, is also a
play on words itself, as the three first letters of the name reveal. Furthermore, the letter with the details
of the voyage is dated April Fool’s Day.
404The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction
CHARMION. Dreams are with us no more; but of these mysteries anon. I
rejoice to see you looking like-life and rational. The film of the shadow has
already passed from off your eyes. Be of heart and fear nothing. Your allotted
days of stupor have expired; and, to-morrow, I will myself induct you into
the full joys and wonders of your novel existence.
EIROS. True, I feel no stupor, none at all. The wild sickness and the terrible
darkness have left me, and I hear no longer that mad, rushing, horrible sound,
like the voice of many waters. Yet my senses are bewildered, Charmion, with
the keenness of their perception of the new.
CHARMION. A few days will remove all this;– but I fully understand you,
and feel for you. It is now ten earthly years since I underwent what you
undergo, yet the remembrance of it hangs by me still. You have now suffered
all of pain, however, which you will suffer in Aidenn.
EIROS. In Aidenn?
CHARMION. In Aidenn (Poe 2000: vol. I, 455-456).
Thanks to this conversation, the disaster4 is related by Eiros, a spirit who has
just arrived in Heaven. There, Eiros is received by Charmion, a woman who died
ten years before, and he makes a great effort to explain to her what earthly life was
like since she arrived in Heaven. The previous quotation clearly states the transfor-
mation that Eiros is undergoing, not only physical and psychological, but also at
every level, involving mainly an unavoidable and significant spatial alteration from
Earth to Heaven.
Two years later, in August (1841), «The Colloquy of Monos and Una» was
published in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. As with the previous,
this conversation is also held in Heaven by two blessed souls, similar characters
as before, something that reveals that this technique was commonly used by the
author. In this second dialogue, Monos and Una talk about a modification suffered
by the world due to a mistake made by men, who defended practical science and
industrialization instead of art (Jacobs 1960: 404).
As Jacobs suggests, Poe declares that the world could have been saved if
men had followed the poets’ advice, whose «taste» would have led them back to
«Beauty, to Nature and to Life» (Poe 2000: vol. I, 610). However, according to
4 In spite of the fact that this story is an account of the destruction of the world by a comet, this
does not happen due to collision, as it is common in this type of narrations. The disaster that hit our
planet is a direct consequence of the Apocalypse, produced by the flame of a new comet that destroys
everything.
405María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
the dialogue between Monos and Una, men decided to underestimate art and this
led to «the Art-scarred surface of the Earth» (Poe 2000: vol. I, 611) in favour of
practical science:
One word first, my Una, in regard to man’s general condition at this epoch.
You will remember that one or two of the wise among our forefathers—wise
in fact, although not in the world’s esteem—had ventured to doubt the pro-
priety of the term «improvement», as applied to the progress of our civili-
zation. There were periods in each of the five or six centuries immediately
preceding our dissolution, when arose some vigorous intellect, boldly con-
tending for those principles whose truth appears now, to our disenfranchised
reason, so utterly obvious—principles which should have taught our race to
submit to the guidance of the natural laws, rather than attempt their control.
At long intervals some master-minds appeared, looking upon each advance in
practical science as a retro-gradation in the true utility (Poe 2000: vol. I, 609).
The dialogue revolves around the immortality of the soul and the ability to live
everlastingly after passing away far from Earth, as in «The Conversation of Eiros
and Charmion». The perfect place to exist under these conditions is exactly the
space where Poe placed the story: Heaven. There are two key concepts in this story,
«death» and «everlasting life», as Eakin points out (Eakin 1973: 15), and both of
them are introduced by Una when explaining the incidents of her own «passage
through the dark Valley and Shadow» (Poe 2000: vol. I, 608). This view is similarly
shared by Monos after his experience: he considers death a process of regeneration
instead of a barrier. In fact, death is regarded as a new life, only made possible
when crossing from the earthly space to the heavenly one; according to Monos,
death does not imply the end of everything but the beginning of a final salvation
that will take place in a different location.
Regarding «The Power of Words», Arthur H. Quinn and Thomas O. Mabbott,
along with other important literary critics and theorists, have agreed that this prose
poem is a precedent for Poe’s most popular cosmogonic essay, «Eureka», since both
of them were written around reflections on the universe, philosophical judgments
and scientific ideas. Additionally, it is usually considered the best of Poe’s three
imaginary dialogues of blessed spirits held in Heaven, as Mabbott declares (Poe
2000: vol. II, 1210).
This story is one of the shortest tales by Edgar Allan Poe, which does not imply
that it is the easiest or simplest one. The dialogue between Oinos and Agathos, two
spirits who no longer live on our planet but instead in a different heavenly space,
takes place in the future after the destruction of the world. The characteristics of
406The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction
these winged characters, along with their non-corporeal conditions, make them
perfect creatures in order to wander around Aidenn once more. Furthermore, they
embody Poe’s ideas about the creation of the world, who takes the position that God
only created in the beginning (Quinn 1998: 469). Both Oinos and Agathos engage
in a dialogue that allows them to explore the themes of knowledge and happiness,
considering the idea that happiness is the direct result of a spirit’s willingness to
acquire more and more knowledge, thus leading to an everlasting search for infor-
mation5 and consequently a pursuit of happiness.
3. SEA SPACE
Leaving outer space, our attention must now be focused on sea space, where
Edgar Allan Poe based some of his science fiction stories. For instance, «MS.
Found in a Bottle» (1833) was the first story that allowed the author to examine
a space that was unknown to him. In this tale, the narrator describes how he was
involved in a terrible ship accident6 that led him to discover an unexplored sea area,
a hidden space in the centre of the Earth beyond reason and human knowledge.
This is an exact reference to the Hollow Earth hypothesis by John Cleves Sym-
mes Jr.7, who thought that the Earth was hollow and the poles were connected. It
was also believed in this era that the North Pole was magnetic and consisted of an
endless hole that attracted and pulled in intrepid sailors. This unknown space was
depicted by Gerard Mercator in a sixteenth-century map of the Arctic, where the
black island called Rupes Nigra could be found, under which the hole was located.
This hollow-earth theme is repeated in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of
Nantucket (1837), which details another sea voyage based on a contemporary topic:
the exploration of unknown spaces (sea spaces in this case). This story takes place
entirely at sea beginning with the moment when the main character, Pym, goes
aboard the whaling ship Grampus. After experiencing several misfortunes, such
as cannibalism, sea storms and mutinies, the story ends with a final confrontation
between the protagonist and a weird creature that emerges from the water.
In Pym, Poe revisits the thread of adventures in the ocean, a popular theme in
the first half of the nineteenth century. The main character, commonly known as
Pym, feels proud of «opening to the eye of science one of the most intensely exci-
5 While Poe promoted the idea that happiness is based on knowledge, Michel Foucault seriously
believed in the fact that knowledge is a form of power and power is something that can be acquired
(Foucault 1980: 43).
6 The tragedy was motivated by a terrible storm that sent almost everybody overboard, followed
by the collision with a magical vessel.
7 Although this theory is also introduced in «The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall»,
it is much more relevant in this tale, since the plot depends directly on this hypothesis.
407María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
ting secrets which has ever engrossed its attention» (Poe 1994: 166). Pym mentions
the mystery attached to Antarctica, a space that has always been intriguing to the
people of this era. As Wijkmark highlights, Poe’s Pym refers to an Antarctic con-
tinent, something surprising since the famous explorer James Cook8 had already
commented on its existence (Wijkmark 2009: 84). This pioneer was able to arrive
at a place where nobody had been before: 71º 10’S, a space he named ne plus ultra,
and he did not find any hole leading to the centre of the Earth between the poles.
Thus, what began as the story of a sea journey unleashed a much more unbelievable
fiction where the main character discovers weird lands and cultures in the polar
region (Wijkmark 2009: 84).
«A Descent into the Maelström» (1841) is an account of a dangerous trip along
the Norwegian coast, indicating that the story is again located at sea. In this case,
Edgar Allan Poe explains how a sailor survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool, coin-
ciding this story with the nineteenth-century sea exploration and the myths that
grew around it.
In «A Descent into the Maelström», we find a story within another story. A first-
person narrator, just as the wedding-guest created by Coleridge in «The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner», tells what an old Norwegian sailor has previously told him
near a cliff in the Helseggen mountain. The narration of this fisherman is a personal
testimony, since he himself lived the violence of the whirlpool. The story starts as
the anticipation of an imminent end, «an event such as never happened before to
mortal man – or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of» (Poe 2000: vol. I,
608) but it radiates optimism, since it is told in first person. The narrator was on a
boat with his two brothers when this terrible whirlpool surprised them and threate-
ned them until, thanks to his physical analysis, he could save his life and survive in
order to narrate his great deed.
4. INNER SPACE
The human body has been represented since prehistoric times, as demonstrated
by several discoveries of cave paintings. However, accessing and getting to know
our inner body, the area that is not visible at first sight, without having to sacri-
fice life, required a shift in perspective. The emergence of modern science in the
Renaissance led to developing the notion of «deep seeing» (Wilson 2012: 13) and
this also enabled the exploration of inner space, by means of which Poe thought that
other mysterious spatial contexts could be discovered and explained.
8 After a deep reading of this story, it is evident that Edgar A. Poe wanted to take up again the
question of the exploration of the South Pole in this narration, challenging Cook’s idea in order to be
able to speculate about the existence of new spaces that have not yet been discovered.
408The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction
In exploration of this theme, the author published several science fiction stories
dealing with the pseudoscience of mesmerism or animal magnetism, the discipline
that fuelled modern hypnosis. This form of alternative medicine in Poe’s era was
understood as the belief in a natural life fluid or vital force that could work as a
therapeutic agent in human beings healing illnesses. Thus, mainly thanks to «A Tale
of the Ragged Mountains» (1844), «Mesmeric Revelation» (1844) or «The Facts
in the Case of M. Valdemar» (1845), the reader can explore other unknown spaces
from the hand of the author himself: the human mind and the human body, guided
by the doctors performing different experiments, cures, and healings.
Animal magnetism was in vogue at the end of the eighteenth century and at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. The most important cities across Europe and in
the United States of America boasted exhibitions and lectures delivered by famous
mesmerizers, such as Franz Anton Mesmer, the originator of this pseudoscience.
Furthermore, amazing experiments —which put patients into a light sleep or con-
vulsion— were also carried out, and mesmerism, along with electricity, and other
disciplines, was declared the «Great Acting Power of Nature» (Stern 1968: 162),
revealing the worldwide impact that this pseudoscience was having.
In fact, Mesmer and his supporters referred to animal magnetism as:
An autonomous physical force pervading both the animate and inanimate
worlds, accounting for the mesmerists’ therapeutic powers at the same time
that it attracted iron to magnets, kept the stars in their places, and gave rise to
the «influence mutuelle entre les corps célestes, la terre, & les corps animés»
(Falk 1969: 536).
Edgar A. Poe was very keen on mesmerism and, as Carlson states, his «interest
in science has been thoroughly documented, but mesmerism provided Poe with a
particularly Gothic means of fabricating the hypnagogic state in which special spi-
ritual revelations might be brought forward» (Carlson 1996: 264).
The three tales that have been selected share many common features. For
example, there is always a patient or sleep-waker on the brink of death, who starts
a kind of internal voyage, going deep into a mysterious inner space. These sleep-
wakers, as Edgar Allan Poe refers to them, are in fact something similar to sleep-
walkers who are suffering from an induced trance that makes them travel along
unknown areas9. Their voyage is led by different «doctors»10 who take advantage
9 In the case of «A Tale of the Ragged Mountains», the patient’s deep trance was induced by a
doctor who used a poisonous sangsue in his healing treatment.
10 The author of these three stories refers to them as doctors but they are not anything else but
mesmerizers and mesmerists.
409María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
of the situation to learn about the dark regions of the mind and even about death.
This trip beyond rationality is started by the pseudo-doctors by means of magnetic
passes that lead the patients to a state of deep hypnosis. Finally, these three sto-
ries include an account of what the patients have experienced while being in this
state. In «Mesmeric Revelation», the narrator, conveying Poe’s ideas, talks about
this voyage along an unknown space more related to death: «Had the sleep-waker,
indeed, during the latter portion of his discourse, been addressing me from out the
region of the shadows?» (Poe 2000: vol. II, 1040).
So significant these tales were among pseudoscientists that the story «The
Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar» was believed to be a real account, as Robert.
H. Collyer, one of the most popular mesmerists in Boston, told Poe himself after
reading the tale:
DEAR SIR – Your account of Mr. Valdemar’s case has been universally
copied in this city, and has created a very great sensation. It requires from
me no apology, in stating, that I have not the least doubt of the possibility of
such a phenomenon; for I did actually restore to active animation a person
who died from excessive drinking of ardent spirits. He was placed in his
coffin ready for interment.
You are aware that death very often follows excessive excitement of the ner-
vous system; this arising from the extreme prostration which follows; so that
the vital powers have not sufficient energy to react.
I will give you the detailed account on your reply to this, which I require for
publication, in order to put at rest the growing impression that your account
is merely a splendid creation of your own brain, not having any truth in fact
[sic] (Ingram 1880: 49-50).
Even the writer Elizabeth Barrett Browning had to confess that:
Then there is a tale of his [Poe’s] which I do not find in this volume, but
which is going the rounds of the newspapers, about mesmerism, throwing
us all into most admired disorder, or dreadful doubts as to whether it can
be true, as the children say of ghost stories. The certain thing in the tale in
question is the power of the writer, and the faculty he has of making horrible
improbabilities seem near and familiar (Harrison 1903: 386).
Such was the excitement created around these stories that Edgar A. Poe himself
had to deny that they were true:
410The Use of Space in Edgar Allan Poe’s Science Fiction
The evidence indicates, rather, that Poe intended them as serious fiction, even
though they were of the «horror» variety, but that when they were greeted
with enthusiasm by mesmerists, spiritualists, and sundry mystics, and with
cries of incredulity by the sceptics, he declared them to be hoaxes in order to
capitalize upon the attendant publicity. Certainly, he went to inordinate lengths
to convince his friends that the tales were hoaxes, once widespread comment
had been aroused, even though he maintained at the same time, if only briefly,
a certain ambiguity regarding their authenticity (Lind 1947: 1094).
Thus, inner space is explored by pseudo-doctors, guided by Edgar Allan Poe
himself, who take advantage of dying patients in order to narrate what the voyage
from life to death is like. He demonstrates that the limits and frontiers of our body
can be crossed, and that knowing what lies within us, that is to say, examining
unknown spaces that go beyond human understanding, can help explain supernatu-
ral phenomena. It is true that this exploration is dangerous and threatening, but it is
at the same time an evidence of the mind-body connection.
5. CONCLUSIONS
After going through the selected tales, it can be stated that three are the most
prominent spaces that are present in the science fiction stories by Edgar Allan Poe:
outer space (including sky and Heaven), sea space and inner space. And, why did
he decide to set some of his science fiction tales in these different spaces11? The
answer becomes more obvious after studying his background and vital context: his
choice and decision were not arbitrary at all, but based on his own real space and
time, that is to say, the first half of the nineteenth century in America.
From its very early origins, science fiction literature has always been determined
by the circumstances of the age in which it was produced. Thus, when selecting the
topics, characters, and plots for his fictions, the author from Boston took advantage
of his own society, his time and his space. He drew on popular themes of his time,
such as Atlantic voyages, sea exploration or mesmerism, among others, and turned
them into masterpieces that can be read today and always.
Edgar Allan Poe, on the one hand, used his own space, which is his country,
with its society and culture, and his lifetime itself, to develop these tales; on the
other hand, he modified the borders of this space to reinvent at the same time
different spaces in his fictions, such as inner spaces and outer spaces. This can be
11 Poe anticipated some political and theoretical assumptions that were shared afterwards by
Kristeva, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, insisting that «space is not a pre-existing container for arte-
facts and practices, but is constituted by them in a relationship of reciprocal influence and inflection»
(West-Pavlov 2009: 24).
411María Isabel JIMÉNEZ GONZÁLEZ
verified after reading his science fiction literature and comparing and contrasting it
with news and articles from magazines, journals and newspapers published during
the life of the author.
For example, the concept of exploring the outer space was more and more fash
ionable after the creation of the first hot air balloon in 1770 by Joseph and Étienne
Montgolfier, the first flights some years later, and the excitement that the sighting
of the Halley’s comet generated in 1835 (Beaver 1976: 356).
The exploration initiative continued into the nineteenth century as several naval
expeditions sought to discover the Northwest Passage to the Arctic, and the long-
fabled channel that connected both poles. Other explorers pinned all their hopes on
looking for the Terra Australis Incognita, a place where the Antarctica was located
(González Moreno 2010: 245). Edgar Allan Poe was not unaware of this issue and
personally reviewed an account by the North American explorer Jeremiah Reynolds
in 1836, dealing with some of these questions.
In the same way, Poe was very keen on delving into the wonders of mesmerism,
the pseudoscience that allowed him to explore the inner space that we have been
commenting on. A broad number of articles have been found from the nineteenth-
century press, some of them advertising conferences near the places where the
Bostonian writer was living, suggesting that he was aware of its popularity.
Thus, in general terms, it can be stated that apparently in the works analysed the
concept of space, as used by Edgar A. Poe, becomes an allegory of the unknown.
This is without any doubt related to the need to know and to learn, key in Poe’s
life and generation.
Thus, we can conclude that Poe’s science fiction tales and short stories are
reflective examples of what he was living, that is to say, a mirror of his own life
space. Through close examination into Poe’s works, one can understand how
influenced Poe was by his own time, being his literature an echo of his fears and
obsessions, of his worries and concerns, being his pen in charge of documenting
his life for future generations.
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